Ep.10 He Will Give You What You Hope For | Dhul Hijjah | Dr. Omar Suleiman & Sh. Ali Hammuda

Love is proven by sacrifice. In the final episode of The Book of Heart Softeners, we reflect on what it truly means to prefer Allah over the comforts, desires, and distractions of this world. Whether it’s leaving the warmth of your bed for prayer, giving away wealth, seeking sacred knowledge, or resisting your desires, every sincere sacrifice is seen by Allah—and never goes unrewarded.

Join Sh. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Ali Hammuda for a powerful conclusion to the series on what it means to live for Allah sincerely and to trust that He will give you everything you hoped for and more. Special thanks to Heenat Salma Farm for hosting and supporting this series, and to Caravane Earth for collaborating with us on this journey.

https://yaqeeninstitute.org

NOTE: Only vocals were used in the making of the soundtrack.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

We're not here to be comfortable. You know who you are sacrificing for, and you know what you are sacrificing for. You know who you are sacrificing for, and you know what you are sacrificing for. And on that day where everything speaks, the only thing that will speak for you is what you sacrificed for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's what will speak for you on the day of judgment. And I want you to remember when things get hard on this journey of yours, that you never lose when you give up something for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You're only choosing to invest in something that is real, something that lasts, something that is forever, something that is more fulfilling than everything else than this world will present to you.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

So, in summary, my brothers, moving on from here, my encouragement to you, my encouragement to our viewers as well, is to create a connection with Wai from the noise and the clamor of life to retreat from time to time and expose yourself to revelation, not just in terms of study, and that is essential, but also in being in the gathering where Quran is recited.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Assalamu alaikum mu rahmatullahi wa barakatu. First and foremost, we say Aid Mubarak to all of you who will be celebrating today. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you and accept from you and bring you close to him. Allah Amin. And for all of you, as we've taken this journey together through nine a hadith, Shaykh Ali and myself thought it would be fitting for us to sort of share our final reflections, bring it all together. And I think about this concept of sacrifice. Think of the first hadith to the last hadith. And if you read the chapter in its entirety, the first hadith to the last hadith and how it all comes together. And this notion of sacrifice, it's called kurbani, Qurbani. Right? Qurb, it brings you closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You make sacrifices to come close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. In essence, sacrifice is how you prove your love. Sacrifice is how you prove your love to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And if nothing costs you anything, then nothing is proven with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the very first hadith that we covered was whoever loves to meet Allah. And then the last hadith that we covered was Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaking to someone who really hated to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and did not offer the simplest, easiest way for himself to be forgiven, which was simply to acknowledge his creator. And so we bring it back. You love to meet Allah because you have sacrificed what you otherwise love for Allah. You love to meet Allah because you sacrificed what you otherwise love for Allah. What do I mean by that? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says they feed with their wealth despite their love for that wealth, the poor person, the orphan, the ateen, the masken, the asir, the prisoner. Right? Why? Because they love Allah more. Those who believe love Allah more. And so this concept of preference. If I was to ask every single person here, and we are all of varying degrees, do you believe in Allah? Of course, we all believe in Allah. La ilaha Allah. It's at our essence. What are you willing to do for Allah? That's the question. And for all of us, that's going to look very different. And if you think about all the times that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran, this concept of athara, what do you prefer? What do you prefer? Athar al-hayatul dunya, someone who preferred the life of this world. Whereas the ansar, yuqiruna ala and fusihim, they prefer others to themselves. Do you prefer what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commands over what your soul desires? Do you prefer Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's love over what you otherwise would love? And I want to bring in a hadith here. This hadith is not in Kitabriq, but I think that it really brings together this concept of sacrifice in the most beautiful of ways. And it is an authentic hadith that the Prophet says, our Lord is amazed by two people. And the first person that he mentions, Rajulin, Farah and Wita'ihi, Walihafi, Mimbaini Hibbihi wa alihi, illa salaatihi, Fayakulullah wa ala limala i katihi, unru ila abdi, farahihi wawi, mimbaini hibbihi wa ahlhi, illa salaatihi, ragbatan fima indi wa shafa katan nimma indi. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala looks at this person and says, Look at this person who is waking up and leaving the comfort of their bed, leaving the joy of their spouse, leaving the relaxation of their sleep, leaving everything that pulls them into this world, calling upon me, leaving all of that, the comfort of the bed, the comfort of the embrace of the spouse, because of what they desire from me and what they fear from me, it all comes from that love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is what it comes down to. If this notion of the meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now is really front and center in your life, which was the whole point of Imam al-Bukhari, rahimallah's kitabu-richa, to reframe life so that this becomes everything, then all you start to ask yourself is what have I put forth for this meeting? That meeting is everything. What have I put forth for this meeting? And so, my final words to you all, number one, is we're not here to be comfortable. We're not here to be comfortable. You know who you are sacrificing for, and you know what you are sacrificing for. You know who you are sacrificing for, and you know what you are sacrificing for. And on that day where everything speaks, the only thing that will speak for you is what you sacrificed for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's what will speak for you on the day of judgment. And I want you to remember when things get hard on this journey of yours, that you never lose when you give up something for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You're only choosing to invest in something that is real, something that lasts, something that is forever, something that is more fulfilling than everything else than this world will present to you. And so choose wisely this path and exert yourself. Let your efforts match your stated intentions. And as long as you put that meeting before you every single day, then every single day will be framed by that day. And every single interaction that you have with everybody else will be framed by that interaction that you will have with him, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And everything that you endured for his sake or gave up for his sake, he will reward you in a way that nobody else can. You will know that it was worth it. It was all worth it. People will tell you, you know, especially when you're younger, you're getting religious too soon. You're missing out on life. Live a few years and then get into religion if you want to. It's okay. You're still young, you've still got your whole life ahead of you. Get it out of your system first. But who guarantees you that your system is going to be operating once you've gotten it all out? Or that your heart will not be too stained to now be polished and to come back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You have no guarantees except for the guarantee of this meeting. Shaqali, may Allah bless you. Um, I've enjoyed tremendously your insights and everything that you've given us with your preparation on these nine ahadithas you've taught your students, and then you brought it to us in a condensed form, Alhamdulillah Rahmeen. And we've agreed to co-author a book, inshaAllah, with the notes for my extensive class and your extensive class Bidn Nahi ta'ala. Shaykhari, as you've taught this book over and over and over again, what are some final insights you can share with everyone with to take home?

SPEAKER_03 8:27

Alhamdulillah Salahu Salaamu Alla Rasulilla. Just to be honest to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I've taught it once, this is the second time. But inshaAllah, it will be the second time of many weidnilla, and it was a suggestion that was given by yourself. So may Allah make it a sadaqah jariyyah on your scales, on your family and your mother and father. Our brothers who are here, the team who took part, and everyone who is benefiting from this series, Ya Rabbien. And we also pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that part of the pleasure, part of the reward that Shaykh Omar spoke about in immersing ourselves in work for the hereafter, we hope that part of that pleasure has come to us in this series. And I would hope and I would pray that we have experienced some of it in the life of this world in a hurried form, in a rushed form before its fullest form in the Akhirah. And I say that, brothers, because there is a joy in immersing yourself in knowledge, generally speaking, whether that's by way of learning or whether by way of teaching. That's for all forms of good knowledge. And there is a statement attributed to Aristotle who supposedly said that the greatest pleasure the world can give is the pursuit of knowledge, however small it may be. And then he goes on to explain that the reason why there is such a pleasure associated with looking at a picture, he argues, is because you are subliminally gathering meaning. So he attributes the joy of an image back to the idea of knowledge that your mind is putting together. So that's knowledge as a genre, but if we were to funnel it down a little bit and be more specific and talk about Islamic knowledge, then the joy, the ecstasy, the pleasure, the worldly reward that we're speaking about is on a different level. And those who started this pursuit, they know exactly what that means. When the Quran refers to itself as Nur, light, and Huda, guidance, and anzalamina sema'i'an, rain that gives life to the earth. Ruh, a spirit, a soul, a life. What does that do to a person who immerses himself in Islamic growth, Islamic learning, Islamic teaching, and embarks on a journey to benefit himself first and then to be a means of salvation for others? There is a laddah, there is a sweetness to it. And that is why Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah, he would say in his majmuur al-Fata'wah, mi awamulazat. He said, There is no doubt that the sweetness connected to knowledge is the greatest of all sweetnesses. And his student Ibn al-Qayyim would go on to say that, he said, if it were possible to put knowledge as a portrait to sketch it out, it would be the most beautiful of all images out there. And Shaykh and myself were speaking in the car not too long ago about Ibn al-Josi's experience with the pursuit of knowledge and how he speaks in his Sayyidul Qhatr about how as a young man for him it was like Laddatul Asal, the sweetness of uh honey, and he explains how he would make his way to Nahur Asa, the river of Aisha, carrying with him very old and stale loaves of bread. As a young man, when he was beginning his pursuit, and he said, I would put the bread in my mouth and I would be barely able to chew it, and I would take from the river and I would swallow just to be able to bring it down. And he said, Wa Ai no himati la tara illa lat. All the while my eye of ambition can see nothing but the sweetness of knowledge acquisition. It's all. That's knowledge in general, funneling it down to knowledge specifically, and then funneling it down a little bit more specific, which is the knowledge of the Sunnah, the knowledge of wahi, the knowledge of revelation. And we had a sample of what that feels like over two or so days of studying and of discussion. The study of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, that has a certain joy connected to it in this world. And I hope that you have experienced part of it. Why? Because studying the prophetic tradition is not just information, it is companionship with the Prophet Muhammad to the best of our worldly ability. And that is why when you see the words of our predecessors and how they spoke about their experience with their experience with the Sunnah of the Prophet, you have the likes of Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, who used to spend long periods at home in seclusion. And they would say to him, Alat usto Hesh, don't you feel lonely? And he would say, How can I feel lonely when I am in the companionship of the Prophet and his companions? Meaning, whilst I am studying the life of the Prophet and living with his tradition and his words and that of his companions. I can't be lonely. When he was in jihad, he took to a corner in the tightest of circumstances, mid-battle, when the war was raging on, he took to a kauna with some scholars to hear a portion of hadith. And he said, I want to hear the hadith of the Prophet at a time and place where nobody has heard hadith before. Yeah? And Yahya ibn Ma'een, another famous scholar of hadith, a contemporary of Imam Ahmed, when he was ill, they said to him, Matashtahi, what do you aspire for? What do you wish? He said two things. Baytun Khalil was an adunal. I wish for an empty house. I wish people would just go away for a little bit. And a high chain of transmission. What does he mean by a high chain of transmission? Meaning I want to hear a hadith, a statement of the Prophet, or a prophetic tradition with a minimum number of narrators, so that I can be close to the Prophet even by way of a chain of transmission. So there is a joy connected with the hadith of the Prophet. One of my teachers in the UK did a makraa, meaning a gathering of recitation of hadith, where it was just the raw and the unfiltered version of Sahih al-Bukhari al-Muslim, reading out all of the hadith, the chain of transmission of each, and then the text. And it was over 22 hours or so. And Alhamdulillah, some of us, we we covered it. And I tell you, my brothers, it was one of the most empowering and clarifying, polishing moments of my life. Where there is no discussion. There is a space for the discussion as we did. But there is also a moment where it is purely the hearing of the Quran, purely the listening of the Quran for healing, healing, or the listening of the prophetic, the listening to the prophetic tradition for your healing. To constantly hear again and again for hours on end the names of transmitters that eventually become part of your own life, names that you become familiar with, and then the hadith, and then hadith number two. So you're hearing the Shaykh saying that Bukhari said, that Al-Hamaidi he said, that Sufian he said, that Yahya ibn Sayyid al-Ansari he said, that Muhammad ibn Ibrahim said, that Honorable Khattab he said, that the Prophet Muhammad said, Innam al-Amalubat actions are by their intentions. To the rest of the hadith. And then the second hadith, chain of transmission, text of the hadith, third hadith, something happens to you, a light illuminates in the heart. And it is truly a cure. And perhaps this is one of the reasons why the Prophet said, May Allah give light, may Allah illuminate a person who hears from us a tradition, meaning from the Prophet, who hears from us a tradition and then memorizes it and then conveys it as he had it. It's a cause of light. This polishing experience that I speak of perhaps is an aspect of this light. So, in summary, my brothers, moving on from here, my encouragement to you, my encouragement to our viewers as well, is to create a connection with Wahi from the noise and the clamor of life, to retreat from time to time and expose yourself to revelation, not just in terms of study, and that is essential, but also in being in the gathering where the Quran is recited, being in a gathering where hadith is read out and building an intimate connection with it and seeing what it does to you and your life.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Allah Kashaykh. If there's one line that just came to my mind that I think summarizes the transition, Allah is asking us while we're here or asking the angels about us, what do you want? On the day of judgment, that question becomes what did you put forth? The transition is from what do you want to what did you put forth? How do your actions match up to your state of desires? And so you love the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, you want to hear what he said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you want to know what he did, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. You want to follow his path, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. You want to be with him in paradise. And so there's this joy now that increases the desire. How many of you want Jannah more as a result of this and are now thinking about that meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and want that meeting to be a pleasant meeting more now because you've been listening to these ahadith? It's not magic, it's the sunnah. It's these beautiful ahadith that we had in. Jazak alakha shaykhani. And we will ask inshaAllah, our brothers, Jazakum Allah Khairan, final questions.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Uh putting into practice the idea of enjoying good and forbidding evil. What are the correct manners to approach this? Can you elaborate for us, for example, on a specific circumstance? So, for example, if we're in a non-Muslim country and we see something that isn't correct or we don't like, or we're in a situation where something is obviously evil or not correct, what are the manners to keep in mind when trying to enjoy good or forbidden evil?

SPEAKER_03 19:53

So as the um Arabic maxim or proverb says, uh, every situation has its own specific behavior. Wa al-hekma wisdom is fa' alumay and bari, filwaqtil ledi and bari, always wisdom they defy it as doing the right thing in the right timing, in the right mannerism. In some circumstances, the ideal situation would be for you directly to involve yourself in forbidding an evil or enjoying the good. In another circumstance, it would be you lobbying somebody who is more capable than you in doing this. In another circumstance, it would be to stay silent about it until it disappears itself. So each situation needs to be looked at and assessed on its own merits. But the key thing is this, to never normalize a wrongdoing that you see in your personal life, in your domestic life, in your political life, online or offline, to never accept it as the status quo, or to feel that it's okay, somebody else will do it, or to no longer see it as something that no longer requires you speaking about it. Every Muslim is required to engage with his day-to-day. And a Muslim who is in a situation, like for example, where there is political rife, he has a certain obligation. A person when there is a rife or there is a sin when it's, for example, financial, the focus must be in correcting the financial era. We mustn't be a people who are advising people about sins that are disconnected from our era. To live our moment, to connect with our circumstance, to mix with the people, to understand their problems and to address it accordingly. Wallawa zakum waha.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yawa?

SPEAKER_00 21:49

What are some examples of people things that you can sacrifice that you can be compensated for in the afterlife?

SPEAKER_01 21:57

So don't just think about sacrifice in terms of money. Think about it in terms of time. Think about it in terms of attention. Think about it in terms of energy. You're making sacrifices when you are preferring Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to yourself in any situation because you seek a different station with Him, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that's probably one of the problems with the way that we usually approach this entire subject of sacrifice, is we think about it only in terms of quantity. But remember, we started off by saying we have a relational Lord. We have a Lord that rewards us beyond what we deserve. And so it is to put forth things that you hope will be seen in light of his mercy and his grace subhanahu wa ta'ala. But I would say that when it comes to young people in particular, this is your peak. The Prophet said that on the day of judgment, a person's feet will not move. Until he's asked about four things. He'll be asked about his life, and umrihi, about his life, how he spent that life, how he spent those years that he had on earth. He'll be asked about his body, and jismihi. Fima ablah, how did you consume your body, your strength? So did you sacrifice your strength? Did you sacrifice some of your health to do noble things? He will be asked about his knowledge. How did you benefit with that knowledge? And he'll be asked about his money. Where did you get it from and how did you spend it? So Allah will ask you about every blessing that He's given to you. So when you do muhasada, when you take account of your blessings and you take account of your sins, then you try to fill the gap. How do I repay Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the blessings that He has bestowed upon me? Certainly it's not with sins, it's with good deeds that will undoubtedly be insufficient. But His mercy, His love, His generosity, His grace will shine upon them and turn them into something that is far greater than what I actually put forward. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept what we put forth, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala multiply it, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to love what He loves and make us amongst those whom He loves. Allah